My son took an improvisational comedy class this winter – and his class show was last Sunday.

It was a good hour of solid laughter as he and his fellow quick-thinkers responded to the moment with some hilarious ideas.

As his class instructor said at the conclusion, that was the only time that show will ever be seen quite that way. The next time, it will be somewhat different, funnier or maybe not.

Improvisation is a great form of comedy.

It’s a lousy strategy for fighting would-be dictators.

Right now, Democrats are wisely capitalizing on the nonchalance of Trump’s national security team, which accidentally gave a journalist access to deliberations on this month’s strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

No one claims to know how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was included in what should have been a top-secret chat on the messaging service Signal.

In the process, Trump and his Trumpettes have blamed Goldberg, called it an accident, told two versions of what they knew about the situation, blamed AOC, asked if it might have been a nefarious plot by Signal workers, said the dog did it, blamed Joe Biden and anything else you can think of. Not all of that is real, but given how these people are, you might be tempted to think it’s possible they used all those alibis.

Here’s the thing: I would be surprised if anyone loses their job because of this. Even Party Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary and White Lotus wannabe.

Accidentally broadcasting American military operations and putting the lives of brave men and women at risk is only a mild stretch from sexual predation, persecution, family destruction, illegal deportation, violations of free speech and 34 felony counts of fraud.

And if, by some stroke of unusual competence in Team Trump, somebody does get canned, what does that mean for the quality and integrity of the U.S. executive branch?

Bupkis.

It doesn’t matter if Pete Hegseth or Peat Moss holds the title of Defense Secretary, even if they have the same level of intelligence.

See, the thing is, Trump and the Republicans aren’t improvising. They’re working from a script. And they will stick to the script no matter who the actors are.

Their script is to weaken and decimate the federal government. And nothing – not even a scandal involving the basic idea that YOU DON’T TELL EVERYONE YOUR SECRET MILITARY PLANS – will cause them to ad lib.

They told you what they were going to do when they put out their Project 2025 playbook. And even when Trump went around denying he knew anything about a plan he almost certainly approved, did you ever believe the Republicans wouldn’t abide by it?

And that brings me to the Democrats.

We are good at getting mad. Reacting in the moment to some injustice or wrongdoing. Our lawmakers ask the piercing questions at committee hearings. We create clever memes and social media posts.

What Democrats don’t do is plan.

It’s almost as if they expect would-be voters to trust that they’ll find some way to attain the ideals they proclaim. But they don’t have a blueprint to get to that point.

And people like blueprints. They like specifics. They like benchmarks to gauge progress and ideas.

Democrats are afraid of ideas. They’re afraid people will shoot them down.

Try them. Instead of saying we think education needs to be reformed, ask people what they want for their kids and then work with them to attain those goals. Instead of saying we need to take care of our elderly, ask seniors and their caregivers what’s needed and figure out how we get to that point. 

If people are angry about their healthcare options, see what’s troubling your constituents and then work toward it. 

Trying to fight the drive toward Project 2025 won’t come ad hoc. It is, to be sure, extremely unpopular – it polled so badly that Trump and the others denied it existed even though it was in print and online for all to see. Once they won, they just went back to the plan as if it was a mandate.

The advantage Democrats will have if they develop an action agenda in consultation with the people showing up at town halls is that people will support it. Make it a genuine grassroots idea, and they’ll back you to the hilt.

It’s well and good to improvise a reaction to a security scandal or whatever Trump’s next A.S.S. (Act of Shame and Stupidity) is. But you can’t wing your way to win the hearts of your fellow Americans.

It takes a script. Write one.